


Feast

by lferion



Series: The Grey Book of Erebor [4]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Community: hobbitadvent, Gen, Spoilers, Structured Form
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-19
Updated: 2013-12-19
Packaged: 2018-01-05 06:32:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1090740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lferion/pseuds/lferion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eating and feasting have more than one meaning. Bilbo knows this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Feast

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Hobbit Advent Day 19, prompt: Feast. Thanks go to Morgynleri for useful feedback and brainstorming.

* * *

Everyone needed to eat, thought Bilbo, watching the Dwarves feast at his table, and despite his bebotherment and confustication, he could not begrudge them their obvious enjoyment of the contents of his pantry. 

* * *

Everyone has to eat, Bilbo tried not to think, as the Trolls popped half the Company into disgusting sacks and tied the other half to the hastily assembled spit (fortunately set very high above the fire), frantically casting about for something that would keep the great lumpen trio from feasting on them. 

* * *

Everyone needs to eat, and Elves do better than most, Bilbo thought with satisfaction, surveying the bountiful greenery set before him. Even if the Dwarves did consider it a feast more fit for rabbits than people. 

* * *

'Everyone has to eat' yammered at him the entire time the Gollum-creature cast about for answers to Bilbo's riddles, after proposing that he (they?) eat Bilbo whole if they won. It made it very difficult to think of any riddles that didn't involve feasting or food.

* * *

_Everyone_ needs to eat, insisted Bilbo to himself, seeing Thorin's honeycake and curds but barely touched amidst the veritable feast Beorn had provided for them. Then he saw the glint in Kili's eye, and hid his smile. 

* * *

Everyone has to eat, but if Bilbo (and Sting) had anything to do with it, eight-legs was not getting a drop of Company blood, and if he ever heard 'feast, feast' in those papery-squeeky-creaky whispers, it would be too soon. 

* * *

Everyone needs to eat, and the Woodland Elves did not stint the simple fare they brought their prisoners. The Dwarves fell on the clean water and fresh bread as if it were the no-doubt splendid feast they could hear above them. Bilbo made his supper from the forgotten plate Galion had brought down to accompany the wine.

* * *

Everyone has to eat, Bilbo allowed, crouched in his barrel, packed about with cold and slithery and apparently smuggled fish. He wished the townsfolk joy of their illicit feast, and sincerely hoped they would all be somewhere warm and dry, very soon.

* * *

Everyone needs to eat, not just those invited into the Master's hall. It would not help the restless, unsettled feeling in the town for those without to see the feast, but not partake. Bilbo was glad they would be leaving for the Mountain in the morning.

* * *

Everyone has to eat, but the dragon had an appetite for malice that went beyond anything. He would feast on fear, if not on Dwarf, but even after more than a hundred years, those born to Erebor knew it better than the invader.

* * *

Everything needs to eat, Bilbo knew, conflict or alliance not exempt. a feast of bitter words to swallow or spit out, a served forth with spears. How had he thought a single stone (however storied, sacred or desired) might sate such appetite?

* * *

Everyone would be eaten, Bilbo feared, consumed by the gaping maw of battle, made a feast for ravens. No matter that Dwarves and Men and Elves now fought together against the tide of orcs and wargs. But it wasn't over yet, and he would not despair.

* * *

He should eat, Bilbo thought, feeling battered and heart-sore, though he could not bring himself to move. Food might mend the hollow feeling in his belly, but not his breast. He slept instead, and when he woke, he was greeted with a sight on which to feast his eyes: all the Company, themselves again, alive.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> I was thoroughly creeped out by the spiders in Mirkwood. Oddly, that ended up being the impetus for this fic.


End file.
